A predatory Killer with eyes all over, The Skull Merchant arrived in the Fog with the Tools of Torment DLC for Dead by Daylight. With the ability to place lethal drones across the maps, The Skull Merchant can prove to be a deadly territorial Killer, capable of tracking Survivors at a distance and injuring them should they linger too long within a drone's radius. As such, to truly thrive in the Entity’s trials, players should bring perks that complement The Skull Merchant’s playstyle in Dead by Daylight.
Dead By Daylight: The 38 Best Survivor Perks, Ranked
Dead By Daylight offers some great perks for survivors, but you have to know which ones are going to serve you best!
This guide will tackle the best builds to run with The Skull Merchant in Dead by Daylight, featuring teachable and non-teachable perks to accommodate newcomers and adept players alike.
Updated on August 23, 2024, by Lewis Smyth: The divisive Skull Merchant is due yet another rework in the coming months. Until then, this updated guide showcases the most powerful perks to run with her, as well as her best add-ons.
The Skull Merchant: Best Beginner Build (2024)
Though The Skull Merchant’s base kit perks pose some interesting gameplay possibilities, they are quite situational and playstyle-specific. As such, the base perks that synergize best with her power involve keeping Survivors injured by inflicting punishing healing speeds with each hooked Survivor. Using Whispers will allow you to track nearby Survivors and potentially get the drop on them with your drones. Meanwhile, Hex: No One Escapes Death will shake things up during the End Game Collapse.
- Leverage (The Skull Merchant) – Whenever you hook a Survivor, you gain a token, up to 30. For each token, slow down healing speeds by 5% for 30 seconds after you hook a Survivor.
- Sloppy Butcher (General Perk) – Basic attacks inflict the Mangled and Hemorrhage status ailments for 90 seconds, slowing down healing by 25% and regressing healing progress when left unfinished.
- Hex: No One Escapes Death (General Perk) – After the final generator is completed, all Survivors suffer from the Exposed status ailment, and you gain a 4% Haste effect until the Hex Totem is cleansed.
- Whispers (General Perk) – This perk icon will light up, and you will hear The Entity’s whisper when within 32 meters of a Survivor.
The Skull Merchant: Best Build (2024)
The Skull Merchant’s power revolves around setting up drones at loops to ensure Survivors cannot make distance without sustaining injury. Thus, the most complimentary builds revolve around powerful Scourge Hooks and aggressive slowdown. The Skull Merchant is also a powerful user of The Dredge's perk Dissolution, as her ability to remotely injure Survivors with her drones can be used to deny resource use.
- Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance (The Artist) – The Killer starts with four tokens. For each different Survivor hooked on a white Scourge Hook, lose one token and explode the generator with the most progress, causing it to lose 20% of its progress.
- Dissolution (The Dredge) – 3 seconds after injuring a Survivor by any means, this perk activates for 20 seconds. While active, any pallet that a Survivor fast vaults over within your Terror Radius will immediately break; this perk then deactivates.
- Corrupt Intervention (The Plague) – At the start of the trial, the three generators furthest from the killer's starting location are blocked for 120 seconds or until the first survivor is downed.
- Pop Goes the Weasel (The Clown) – 45 seconds after hooking a Survivor, damaging a generator will remove 20% of its current progress.
It's Time for Dead by Daylight to Solve a Lingering Licensed Killer Problem
Dead by Daylight might have a treasure trove of licensed characters, but two of them don't really feel like complete additions to the cast.
The Skull Merchant: Best Add-Ons
The Skull Merchant’s add-ons all provide some interesting gameplay utility, but only the strongest can turn the tides of a trial. This section of the guide lists The Skull Merchant’s best add-ons, in order of their rarity on the Bloodweb.
Ultrasonic Speaker
Perhaps The Skull Merchant’s best-in-slot add-on, this Common Ultrasonic Speaker decreases Survivors’ immunity to drone scan lines by 25%. This effectively means that you can more quickly injure them from afar, better enabling the popular Laser tag playstyle that sees players rapidly toggle the rotation of drones to tag Survivors.
Supercharge
Claw Trapped Survivors are prevented from healing, are slowed when scanned by drones, and can be tracked by The Skull Merchant’s Radar. With the Supercharge add-on, Survivors are stuck with these Claw Traps for 15% longer, making it a neat little upgrade.
Stereo Remote Mic
Survivors can disable The Skull Merchant’s drones by approaching them and performing a QTE minigame. While it's generally better to recall disabled drones to re-establish pressure in an area, when you aren’t nearby, it helps to have drones reactivate a little faster to waste Survivors’ time and endanger them when chase begins.
Adaptive Lighting
The Skull Merchant’s base kit, Undetectable, is an enormously impactful aspect of her abilities and can be used to get the jump on unaware Survivors. The Adaptive Lighting add-on increases the duration of her Undetectable effect when she places a drone by 20%, making her a more effective stealth Killer.
Vital Targeting Processor
When Claw Trapped Survivors are scanned by a drone, their movement speed is slowed, and you gain Killer Instinct on their location. The Vital Targeting Processor increases this Hindered effect by 3%, giving you greater time to catch up.
Infrared Upgrade
Knowing a Survivor’s location is half the battle in Dead by Daylight, and aura-reading abilities are the key to finding them. With the Infrared Upgrade, whenever a Claw Trap is removed, you see the Survivor’s aura for 4 seconds.
Brown Noise Generator
The Brown Noise Generator makes Claw Trapped Survivors Oblivious until the Trap is removed. This add-on pairs well with the Adaptive Lighting add-on and other stealthy perks to scare Survivors into mistakes.
Randomized Strobes
Like the Vital Targeting Processor, the Randomized Strobes strengthen The Skull Merchant’s power to slow Claw Trapped Survivors by extending the duration of the drones’ Hindered effect by 1 second.
Geographical Readout
Pairing well with The Trapper’s Brutal Strength, the Geographical Readout increases the speed of break actions by 20% for 8 seconds after deploying a drone. A not inconsiderable effect, but remember to recall those out-of-the-way drones after you’ve used this power.
Advanced Movement Prediction
For those who haven’t mastered The Skull Merchant’s tracking ability yet, the Advanced Movement Prediction add-on reveals the location of Survivors who receive a Claw Trap for 6 seconds. With this and The Nemesis’ Lethal Pursuer, you can more accurately out-mind game Survivors by reading their movements through walls.
Iridescent Unpublished Manuscript
Disabling drones is Survivors’ one means of messing with The Skull Merchant’s web of traps. Using the Iridescent Unpublished Manuscript, a disabled drone gains a 32-meter Terror Radius for 15 seconds, during which time you become Undetectable. This power can thoroughly disorientate Survivors and works wonders on Dead by Daylight’s smaller indoor maps.
Dead by Daylight
- Released
- June 14, 2016
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language
- Developer(s)
- Behaviour Interactive
- Publisher(s)
- Behaviour Interactive
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 4
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer
- Cross-Platform Play
- PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One & Xbox Series X|S
- Cross Save
- yes
- Franchise
- Dead by Daylight
- Number of Players
- 5
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- yes
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Stadia, Switch, Mobile
- Genre(s)
- Horror, Survival
- How Long To Beat
- N/A
- PS Plus Availability
- Extra & Premium
- File Size Xbox Series
- 51 GB (October 2022)
